Case Study

At a Glance

Accounting Package

The Competition

Concur vs. Abacus vs. Certify

Wanted

Integrations with accounting software to save time and ensure compliance

Needed

Cloud-based, mobile-friendly expense management

David Wieseneck joined letgo, an innovative mobile-based classifieds platform, when there were only ten employees. The finance department consisted of nothing but himself and a recently-opened bank account, so David rolled up his sleeves and set out to build an accounting process that could grow with the company. When dreaming up his ideal accounting stack, David sought Cloud-based, mobile-friendly, and cost-effective tools that would keep his employees happy without sacrificing functionality.

Software That Keeps Up With Your Travels

As the VP of Finance at letgo, David frequently travels back and forth between Spain and the U.S., so an intuitive, Cloud-based mobile app was a crucial must-have in his expense management software. “Scanning receipts and submitting reports with Expensify’s mobile app is so easy,” says David, “and it’s such a relief to know that all of my expense data is automatically synced with Xero’s accounting software.”

Lower Cost, Greater Functionality

“As a small startup, we didn’t have the budget for a back office tool,” remembers David. “We needed tools that were affordable enough that I didn’t have to ask our CEO for extra budget, and also a solution that could be set up in literally an hour.” Although David had implemented Expensify at his previous job five years prior, he did his due diligence at letgo to make sure that Expensify was still the smartest solution.

“After implementing and using Expensify at my last company, it would have been really hard to settle for a different software at letgo,” David explains. “But it was still important to make sure we were using the best of the best at this new company. Expensify’s customer service was miles ahead of Concur’s — Concur doesn’t care about a company of our size. I also looked at Abacus, which had some cool features but weren’t fully fleshed out and still far behind Expensify’s feature set. Certify wasn’t innovative enough, and didn’t stand out as anything special. Five years after I first implemented Expensify, my research showed that Expensify is still the best expense reporting app on the market, with their top-notch integrations and great portfolio of features. It was an easy choice to make.”

Expensify and Xero: Saving Time While Ensuring Compliance

Before he began using Expensify five years ago, David used to spend at least two hours/week shuffling paper, helping employees fill out spreadsheets, and stapling and shipping receipts and reports to different office locations.

“Expensify feels like a seamless extension of Xero rather than a separate system,” says David. “What many Xero users don’t realize is that Xero’s expense reporting tool is super basic. Expensify offers more advanced functionality that growing companies need, such as company card spend. Xero’s expense tool simply doesn’t have this, so while their tool is free, we are happy to pay the reasonable price of $9 per month per active user for Expensify to get all the value we need from an expense management tool.”

The best part about using Xero and Expensify together is that I implemented them both on the same day, within 30 seconds of each other.

David Wieseneck

VP of Finance

“I really like the fact that Expensify syncs the expense categories from Xero, so set-up is fast,” continues David. “I also love that on a day-to-day basis, when an expense report is approved, Expensify automatically creates the Vendor Bill in Xero with all of the details filled out. There’s no need to re-enter the information into Xero, which ultimately saves us time and prevents mistakes. Even the tax rates get synced up, and I can activate/inactivate accounts in Expensify for employees who don’t need to submit expense reports without having to delete them from Xero. Expensify allows me to extend the value of Xero by providing true expense reporting functionality to all of my team members. But the best part about using Xero and Expensify together is that I implemented them both on the same day, within 30 seconds of each other.” Now, David spends 30 minutes a month on Expensify, adding and terminating employees and approving reports.

Keeping Employees Happy with Next Day Reimbursement

“At a recent conference, the #1 complaint about other expense management software was that employees don’t get reimbursed until 1-2 months after submitting an expense report,” recalls David. “Expensify is the only expense reporting app that lets us reimburse employees within 24 hours through the rapid reimbursement feature. This is easily our employees’ favorite thing about Expensify, with the mobile app coming in at a close second.” In addition to the rapid reimbursement, David highlights the ability to customize policies to fit letgo’s needs as another key feature that makes Expensify invaluable.

I feel comfortable knowing that Expensify will scale with our organization as we grow from 10 to 100 to 1000 employees.

Growing, without the Pains

“Expensify is s totally worth it, and a no-brainer for a startup,” says David. “Investing the little time it took to implement Expensify was worth it. I feel comfortable knowing that Expensify will scale with our organization as we grow from 10 to 100 to 1000 employees. It’s the perfect receipt and expense management tool for any startup looking to save time, ensure compliance, and take control back-end organizational processes without breaking the bank.”